Jade

To say Friedkin's career has had its ups and downs is an understatement, his eighties filmography inarguably has enough bombs to sink a oil tanker. Yet eschewing their performances at the box office, many of his films yearn to be rediscovered, from "Cruising" to "Deal of the Century" to "Rampage". Let's not kid ourselves, "Jade" is not a great film, and this is the fault of one man and one man alone - Joe Esterhas. If trash had a messiah, it would be him. For a fleeting moment in the nineties, Esterhas was paid by the bucketload to write formulaic movies for guys, and the erotic thriller has him to thank for its continuing lugubrious existence. "Jade" is interesting however, it is an erotic thriller without the erotic part. While Paul Verhoeven filled "Basic Instinct" chock full of the sleaze he had become renowned for, Friedkin's films are notable for primarily dealing with male characters, and are subsequently about as erotic as as a bowl of cereal. "Jade" is not about sex; it is about sexual jealousy. The talent of Linda Fiorentino cannot be underestimated here, giving depth to a part that amounts to no more than a typical male fantasy - part good girl, part whore - that's right, it's "Crimes of Passion" without Anthony Perkins and his bag of dildos. The leads are well cast and all give adequate performances, and Friedkin throws in all his usual directorial touches (subliminal images and, you guessed it, yet another bloody car chase). "Jade" is an enjoyable film, with delightfully silly twists and over-the-top violence (come on, you know you want to see Angie Everhart get run over again), and is given some class from it's cast and director, but, in the end, proves itself to be a guilty pleasure that makes one feel more guilt than pleasure.

Jade has a pretty straight forward story with a murder and a love triangle between the three main characters. Because of the love triangle, it creates a conflict of interest between the two male characters. The plot sounds interesting enough. However, the way the final product was executed did not deliver an exhilarating or satisfactory story, conclusion, or thriller. Although, the unrated version, which is 12 mints longer, does assist in creating additional development for some of the characters.

The film does inhabit i think some of Friedkin's finest work. An example would be the car chases sequence, which is in fact one of the most spectacular and thrilling chases ever filmed. I think it's his best to date. Cinematography for the film is beautiful and very noir like in the night scenes. Although he did a decent job with directing the leading characters, only Chazz Palminteri came across as really inhabiting his character. To me the problem with the film is that the story probably got lost in the editing or through rewrites.

The bluray for this film, by Lionsgate, is one of the worst transfers I've ever seen. I wish paramount would put out both version of the film on a bluray. The theatrical version is not impressive at all but the unrated cut does a better job.

This is a Basic Instict rehash plain and simple, actually it's a pre draft of basic instict. The directing is a mess, I can't believe this guy shot the french connection. But now he's old and where he tries to be different here, he is instead just plainly bad...Tight close ups for no reasons, boring set scenes, saturated photography...the cast is decent but with such a trite script...the dialog is worse than trivial.

Its only saving grace is an unintended one, and maybe with that meditation in mind this can actually become a good film: Because the grotesqueness, blandness and stupidity in the realisation and script of this film reflects the world of powerless unsexual morons acting all powerful and sexual. Obviously this is unintended as this tries to be edgy, erotic and smart. It tries to be a murder mystery, a who done it on coke a la BI, but it ends up being a who gives a ..., I 've never been so emotionally detached at the end of any mystery.

But in this way it poetically conveys within it's form the artificiality of power and sex, the dead end that is pleasure without sentiments and sensibility.

A bland, derivative, tasteless film about power, sex and wealth, that fails so miserably that its failure becomes a medium of expression and gives the film an unintended second narrative level. It's also starkly realist, because what can be more real than a failed Hollywood flop on sex, money and power. You don't see people doing realistic actions, but you see people acting, directing badly, writing scripts badly. The epitome of decadence.

It could even be quite a good sobering experience, even weirdly lyrical if one watches it with that in mind.

Don't believe all the negs about this pix. It's not just another "Basic Instinct," either. Chaz and Linda are the consummate couple. V-e-r-y classy. The set decorations are fantastic. I absolutely vote Linda the quintessential queen of soft porn (or was it "hard"--I haven't yet seen the uncut version). Was it Linda or was it Memorex? Whoever it was, her legs are fabulous! Angie Everhart's sultry soliloquy describing her passion for LF (Trina) was like butter melting on a hot lobster. I found myself replaying that scene over and over just to capture the full essence of the moment. The hit-and-run scene was extremely graphic, (wow,what a stunt!) except to Friedkin fans who expect a certain amount of gratuitous violence. The final scene with CP and LF was perfect. I could feel the sexual tension jump out from the screen. The beautifully haunting song, "Mystic Dream," by Loreena McKennitt fit the dark mood perfectly. I still don't know why I love this movie; to borrow a line from the film, it must be "hysterical blindness." Go see this movie with a date, and have a great time together afterwards!

Jade got a bad rap when it showed in theaters and still appears to be getting one now from the comments here, so I didn't expect much when I caught it on cable. It never hurts to have low expectations, but I was quite pleasantly surprised and have watched it a few more times since then.

No, the plot isn't especially tight nor the story original, and it can be hard to follow at some points, but it's still an exciting, kinky, disturbing ride nonetheless.

I think the main reason I enjoyed it was the actors involved - Caruso and Palminteri were both very skilled (and surprisingly sexy - I hadn't found either to be that way in any roles I had seen them in previously, including NYPD Blue). And most of all Fiorentino smokes up the screen whenever she's on it. Sensual, damaged, brilliant. She's amazing when given a good script like the Last Seduction, but even with a flawed effort such as Jade, she still sets the house on fire.

The cinematography and art direction were the other thing that made this film. I loved the lavish sets and especially the eerie lighting during the final scene.

And as far as the comparisons to Basic Instinct, I see it as being about equal, suffering from the opposite problems as Jade; while the story was far more interesting the acting was pendantic at best. But maybe that's just my personal bias; I find Michael Douglas pompous and annoying and Sharon Stone shallow and vain.